System and method for beam management procedure configuration

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods of beam reporting for multiple DL processes are described. A UE receives a beam management processes configuration that provides information about beam management reference signals for beam management procedures. The UE transmits a UE capability report that indicates beam management capabilities of the UE and, later, an indication of whether the UE intends to engage in beam refinement. The UE measures the beam management reference signals and receives a beam reporting message that indicates at least one of the beam management procedures to report. In response, the UE transmits the beam report. The beam report contains beam management reference signal measurements of the beam management procedures indicated by the beam reporting message.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/498,805, filed Sep. 27, 2019, which is a U.S. National Stage Filingunder 35 U.S.C. 371 from International Application No.PCT/US2018/025629, filed Apr. 2, 2018 and published in English as WO2018/183995 on Oct. 4, 2018, which claims the benefit of priority toU.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/480,098, filed Mar. 31,2017, entitled “BEAM MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE CONFIGURATION,” each of whichis incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The claims in the instant application are different than those of theparent application and/or other related applications. The Applicanttherefore rescinds any disclaimer of claim scope made in the parentapplication and/or any predecessor application in relation to theinstant application. Any such previous disclaimer and the citedreferences that it was made to avoid, may need to be revisited. Further,any disclaimer made in the instant application should not be read intoor against the parent application and/or other related applications.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments pertain to radio access networks (RANs). Some embodimentsrelate to beamforming in cellular and wireless local area network (WLAN)networks, including Third Generation Partnership Project Long TermEvolution (3GPP LTE) networks and LTE advanced (LTE-A) networks as wellas legacy networks 4^(th) generation (4G) networks and 5^(th) generation(5G) networks. Some embodiments relate to beam management in 5G systems.

BACKGROUND

The use of 3GPP LTE systems (including LTE and LTE-Advanced systems) hasincreased due to both an increase in the types of devices user equipment(UEs) using network resources as well as the amount of data andbandwidth being used by various applications, such as video streaming,operating on these UEs. As a result, 3GPP LTE systems continue todevelop, with the next generation wireless communication system, 5G, toimprove access to information and data sharing. 5G looks to provide aunified network system that is able to meet vastly different andsometime conflicting performance dimensions and services driven bydisparate services and applications while maintaining compatibility withlegacy UEs and applications.

Various techniques continue to be developed to increase the amount ofdata able to be conveyed between a next generation NodeB (gNB) and UEs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION Of THE FIGURES

In the figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralsmay describe similar components in different views. Like numerals havingdifferent letter suffixes may represent different instances of similarcomponents. The figures illustrate generally, by way of example, but notby way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the presentdocument.

FIG 1 illustrates a UE in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a base station or infrastructure equipment radio headin accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates millimeter wave communication circuitry in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of protocol functions in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of protocol entities in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an architecture of a system of a network inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates single procedure based beam reporting in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates multi-procedure based beam reporting in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates periodic and aperiodic beam reporting in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates a beam management procedure configuration inaccordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustratespecific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practicethem. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical,process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodimentsmay be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments.Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalentsof those claims.

FIG. 1 illustrates a UE in accordance with some embodiments. The userdevice 100 may be a mobile device in some aspects and includes anapplication processor 105, baseband processor 110 (also referred to as abaseband sub-system), radio front end module (RFEM) 115, memory 120,connectivity sub-system 125, near field communication (NFC) controller130, audio driver 135, camera driver 140, touch screen 145, displaydriver 150, sensors 155, removable memory 160, power managementintegrated circuit (PMIC) 165 and smart battery 170.

In some aspects, application processor 105 may include, for example, oneor more CPU cores and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltageregulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such asserial peripheral interface (SPI), inter-integrated circuit (I²C) oruniversal programmable serial interface circuit, real time clock (RTC),timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purposeinput-output (IO), memory card controllers such as securedigital/multi-media card (SD/MMC) or similar, universal serial bus (USB)interfaces, mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interfaces andJoint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports.

In some aspects, baseband processor 110 may be implemented, for example,as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board,and/or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits

FIG. 2 illustrates a base station in accordance with some embodiments.The base station radio head 200 may include one or more of applicationprocessor 205, baseband processor 210, one or more radio front endmodules 215, memory 220, power management circuitry 225, power teecircuitry 230, network controller 235, network interface connector 240,satellite navigation receiver 245, and user interface 250.

In some aspects, application processor 205 may include one or more CPUcores and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltage regulators(LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I²C oruniversal programmable serial interface, real time clock (RTC),timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purposeIO, memory card controllers such as SD/MMC or similar, USB interfaces,MIPI interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports.

In some aspects, baseband processor 210 may be implemented, for example,as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits.

In some aspects, memory 220 may include one or more of volatile memoryincluding dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM) and/or a three-dimensional crosspointmemory. Memory 220 may be implemented as one or more of solder downpackaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules and plug-in memorycards.

In some aspects, power management integrated circuitry 225 may includeone or more of voltage regulators, surge protectors, power alarmdetection circuitry and one or more back up power sources such as abattery or capacitor. Power alarm detection circuitry may detect one ormore of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions.

In some aspects, power tee circuitry 230 may provide for electricalpower drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and dataconnectivity to the base station radio head 200 using a single cable.

In some aspects, network controller 235 may provide connectivity to anetwork using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet.Network connectivity may be provided using a physical connection whichis one of electrical (commonly referred to as copper interconnect),optical or wireless.

In some aspects, satellite navigation receiver 245 may include circuitryto receive and decode signals transmitted by one or more navigationsatellite constellations such as the global positioning system (GPS),Globalnay a Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovava Sistema (GLONASS), Galileoand/or BeiDou. The receiver 245 may provide data to applicationprocessor 205 which may include one or more of position data or timedata. Application processor 205 may use time data to synchronizeoperations with other radio base stations.

In some aspects, user interface 250 may include one or more of physicalor virtual buttons, such as a reset button, one or more indicators suchas light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a display screen.

A radio front end module may incorporate a millimeter wave radio frontend module (RFEM) and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequencyintegrated circuits (RFIC). In this aspect, the one or moresub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from a millimeterwave RFEM. The RFICs may include connection to one or more antennas. TheRFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. Alternatively bothmillimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may beimplemented in the same physical radio front end module. Thus, the RFEMmay incorporate both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waveantennas.

FIG. 3 illustrates millimeter wave communication circuitry in accordancewith some embodiments. Circuitry 300 is alternatively grouped accordingto functions. Components as shown in 300 are shown here for illustrativepurposes and may include other components not shown here.

Millimeter wave communication circuitry 300 may include protocolprocessing circuitry 305, which may implement one or more of mediumaccess control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergenceprotocol (PDCP), radio resource control (RRC) and non-access stratum(NAS) functions. Protocol processing circuitry 305 may include one ormore processing cores (not shown) to execute instructions and one ormore memory structures (not shown) to store program and datainformation.

Millimeter wave communication circuitry 300 may further include digitalbaseband circuitry 310, which may implement physical layer (PHY)functions including one or more of hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) functions, scrambling and/or descrambling, coding and/ordecoding, layer mapping and/or de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping,received symbol and/or bit metric determination, multi-antenna portpre-coding and/or decoding which may include one or more of space-time,space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation and/ordetection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronizationsequence generation and/or detection, control channel signal blinddecoding, and other related functions.

Millimeter wave communication circuitry 300 may further include transmitcircuitry 315, receive circuitry 320 and/or antenna array circuitry 330.

Millimeter wave communication circuitry 300 may further include radiofrequency (RF) circuitry 325. In an aspect, RF circuitry 325 may includemultiple parallel RF chains for one or more of transmit or receivefunctions, each connected to one or more antennas of the antenna array330.

In an aspect of the disclosure, protocol processing circuitry 305 mayinclude one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) toprovide control functions for one or more of digital baseband circuitry310, transmit circuitry 315, receive circuitry 320, and/or radiofrequency circuitry 325.

The transmit circuitry of may include one or more of digital to analogconverters (DACs), analog baseband circuitry, up-conversion circuitryand filtering and amplification circuitry, the latter of which mayprovide an amount of amplification that is controlled by an automaticgain control (AGC). In another aspect, the transmit circuitry mayinclude digital transmit circuitry and output circuitry.

The radio frequency circuitry may include one or more instances of radiochain circuitry, which in some aspects may include one or more filters,power amplifiers, low noise amplifiers, programmable phase shifters andpower supplies. The radio frequency circuitry may include powercombining and dividing circuitry in some aspects. In some aspects, thepower combining and dividing circuitry may operate bidirectionally, suchthat the same physical circuitry may be configured to operate as a powerdivider when the device is transmitting, and as a power combiner whenthe device is receiving. In some aspects, the power combining anddividing circuitry may one or more include wholly or partially separatecircuitries to perform power dividing when the device is transmittingand power combining when the device is receiving. In some aspects, thepower combining and dividing circuitry may include passive circuitrycomprising one or more two-way power divider/combiners arranged in atree. In some aspects, the power combining and dividing circuitry mayinclude active circuitry comprising amplifier circuits.

In some aspects, the radio frequency circuitry may connect to transmitcircuitry and receive circuitry via one or more radio chain interfacesor a combined radio chain interface. In some aspects, one or more radiochain interfaces may provide one or more interfaces to one or morereceive or transmit signals, each associated with a single antennastructure which may comprise one or more antennas.

In some aspects, the combined radio chain interface may provide a singleinterface to one or more receive or transmit signals, each associatedwith a group of antenna structures comprising one or more antennas.

The receive circuitry may include one or more of parallel receivecircuitry and/or one or more of combined receive circuitry. In someaspects, the one or more parallel receive circuitry and one or morecombined receive circuitry may include one or more IntermediateFrequency (IF) down-conversion circuitry, If processing circuitry.baseband down-conversion circuitry, baseband processing circuitry andanalog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuitry.

In an aspect, the RF circuitry may include one or more of each of IFinterface circuitry, filtering circuitry, upconversion anddownconversion circuitry, synthesizer circuitry, filtering andamplification circuitry, power combining and dividing circuitry andradio chain circuitry.

In an aspect, the baseband processor may contain one or more digitalbaseband systems. In an aspect, the one or more digital basebandsubsystems may be coupled via an interconnect subsystem to one or moreof a CPU subsystem, audio subsystem and interface subsystem. In anaspect, the one or more digital baseband subsystems may be coupled viaanother interconnect subsystem to one or more of each of digitalbaseband interface and mixed-signal baseband sub-system. In an aspect,the interconnect subsystems may each include one or more of each ofbuses point-to-point connections and network-on-chip (NOC) structures.

In an aspect, an audio sub-system may include one or more of digitalsignal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speechprocessing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such asanalog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, and analogcircuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters. In an aspect,a mixed signal baseband sub-system may include one or more of an IFinterface, analog IF subsystem, downconverter and upconverter subsystem,analog baseband subsystem, data converter subsystem, synthesizer andcontrol sub-system.

A baseband processing subsystem may include one or more of each of DSPsub-systems, interconnect sub-system, boot loader sub-system, sharedmemory sub-system digital I/O sub-system, digital baseband interfacesub-system and audio sub-system. In an example aspect, the basebandprocessing subsystem may include one or more of each of an acceleratorsubsystem, buffer memory, interconnect sub-system, audio sub-system,shared memory sub-system, digital I/O subsystem, controller sub-systemand digital baseband interface sub-system.

In an aspect, the boot loader sub-system may include digital logiccircuitry configured to perform configuration of the program memory andrunning state associated with each of the one or more DSP sub-systems.The configuration of the program memory of each of the one or more DSPsub-systems may include loading executable program code from storageexternal to baseband processing sub-system. The configuration of therunning state associated with each of the one or more DSP sub-systemsmay include one or more of the steps of setting the state of at leastone DSP core which may be incorporated into each of the one or more DSPsub-systems to a state in which it is not running, and setting the stateof at least one DSP core which may be incorporated into each of the oneor more DSP sub-systems into a state in which it begins executingprogram code starting from a predefined memory location.

In an aspect, the shared memory sub-system may include one or more of aread-only memory (ROM), static random access memory (SRAM), embeddeddynamic random access memory (eDRAM) and non-volatile random accessmemory (NVRAM). In an aspect, the digital I/O subsystem may include oneor more of serial interfaces such as I²C, SPI or other 1, 2 or 3-wireserial interfaces, parallel interfaces such as general-purposeinput-output (GPIO), register access interfaces and direct memory access(DMA). In an aspect, a register access interface implemented in digitalI/O subsystem may permit a microprocessor core external to basebandprocessing subsystem (1000 cross reference) to read and/or write one ormore of control and data registers and memory. In an aspect, DMA logiccircuitry implemented in digital I/O subsystem may permit transfer ofcontiguous blocks of data between memory locations including memorylocations internal and external to baseband processing subsystem. In anaspect, the digital baseband interface sub-system may provide for thetransfer of digital baseband samples between the baseband processingsubsystem and mixed signal baseband or radio-frequency circuitryexternal to the baseband processing subsystem. In an aspect, the digitalbaseband samples transferred by the digital baseband interfacesub-system may include in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) samples.

In an aspect, the controller sub-system may include one or more of eachof control and status registers and control state machines. In anaspect, the control and states registers may be accessed via a registerinterface and may provide for one or more of starting and stoppingoperation of control state machines, resetting control state machines toa default state, configuring optional processing features, configuringthe generation of interrupts and reporting the status of operations. Inan aspect, each of the one or more control state machines may controlthe sequence of operation of each of the one or more acceleratorsub-systems.

In an aspect, the DSP sub-system may include one or more of each of aDSP core sub-system, local memory, direct memory access sub-system,accelerator sub-system, external interface sub-system, power managementunit and interconnect sub-system. In an aspect, the local memory mayinclude one or more of each of read only memory, static random accessmemory or embedded dynamic random access memory. In an aspect, thedirect memory access sub-system may provide registers and control statemachine circuitry adapted to transfer blocks of data between memorylocations including memory locations internal and external to thedigital signal processor sub-system. In an aspect, the externalinterface sub-system may provide for access by a microprocessor systemexternal to DSP sub-system to one or more of memory, control registersand status registers which may be implemented in the DSP sub-system. Inan aspect, the external interface sub-system may provide for transfer ofdata between local memory and storage external to the DSP sub-systemunder the control of one or more of the DMA sub-system and DSP coresub-system.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of protocol functions in accordance with someembodiments. The protocol functions may be implemented in a wirelesscommunication device according to some aspects. In some aspects, theprotocol layers may include one or more of physical layer (PHY) 410,medium access control layer (MAC) 420, radio link control layer (RLC)430, packet data convergence protocol layer (PDCP) 440, service dataadaptation protocol (SDAP) layer 447, radio resource control layer (RRC)455, and non-access stratum (NAS) layer 457, in addition to other higherlayer functions not illustrated.

According to some aspects, the protocol layers may include one or moreservice access points that may provide communication between two or moreprotocol layers. According to some aspects, the PHY 410 may transmit andreceive physical layer signals 405 that may be received or transmittedrespectively by one or more other communication devices. According tosome aspects, physical layer signals 405 may comprise one or morephysical channels.

According to some aspects, an instance of PHY 410 may process requestsfrom and provide indications to an instance of MAC 420 via one or morephysical layer service access points (PHY-SAP) 415. According to someaspects, requests and indications communicated via PHY-SAP 415 maycomprise one or more transport channels.

According to some aspects, an instance of MAC 410 may process requestsfrom and provide indications to an instance of RLC 430 via one or moremedium access control service access points (MAC-SAP) 425. According tosome aspects, requests and indications communicated via MAC-SAP 425 maycomprise one or more logical channels.

According to some aspects, an instance of RLC 430 may process requestsfrom and provide indications to an instance of PDCP 440 via one or moreradio link control service access points (RLC-SAP) 435. According tosome aspects, requests and indications communicated via RLC-SAP 435 maycomprise one or more RLC channels.

According to some aspects, an instance of PDCP 440 may process requestsfrom and provide indications to one or more of an instance of RRC 455and one or more instances of SDAP 447 via one or more packet dataconvergence protocol service access points (PDCP-SAP) 445. According tosome aspects, requests and indications communicated via PDCP-SAP 445 maycomprise one or more radio bearers.

According to some aspects, an instance of SDAP 447 may process requestsfrom and provide indications to one or more higher layer protocolentities via one or more service data adaptation protocol service accesspoints (SDAP-SAP) 449. According to some aspects, requests andindications communicated via SDAP-SAP 449 may comprise one or morequality of service (QoS) flows.

According to some aspect, RRC entity 455 may configure, via one or moremanagement service access points (M-SAP), aspects of one or moreprotocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 410, MAC420, RLC 430, PDCP 440 and SDAP 447. According to some aspects, aninstance of RRC 455 may process requests from and provide indications toone or more NAS entities via one or more RRC service access points(RRC-SAP) 456.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of protocol entities in accordance with someembodiments. The protocol entities may be implemented in wirelesscommunication devices, including one or more of a user equipment (UE)560, a base station, which may be termed an evolved node B (eNB), or newradio node B (gNB) 580, and a network function, which may be termed amobility management entity (MME), or an access and mobility managementfunction (AMF) 504, according to some aspects.

According to some aspects, gNB 580 may be implemented as one or more ofa dedicated physical device such as a macro-cell, a femto-cell or othersuitable device, or in an alternative aspect, may be implemented as oneor more software entities running on server computers as part of avirtual network termed a cloud radio access network (CRAN).

According to some aspects, one or more protocol entities that may beimplemented in one or more of UE 560, gNB 580 and AMF 594, may bedescribed as implementing all or part of a protocol stack in which thelayers are considered to be ordered from lowest to highest in the orderPHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS. According to some aspects, one or moreprotocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 560, gNB580 and AMF 594, may communicate with a respective peer protocol entitythat may be implemented on another device, using the services ofrespective lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication.

According to some aspects, UE PHY 572 and peer entity gNB PHY 590 maycommunicate using signals transmitted and received via a wirelessmedium. According to some aspects, UE MAC 570 and peer entity gNB MAC588 may communicate using the services provided respectively by UE PHY572 and gNB PHY 590. According to some aspects, UE RLC 568 and peerentity gNB RLC 586 may communicate using the services providedrespectively by UE MAC 570 and gNB MAC 588. According to some aspects,UE PDCP 566 and peer entity gNB PDCP 584 may communicate using theservices provided respectively by UE RLC 568 and 5GNB RLC 586. Accordingto some aspects, UE RRC 564 and gNB RRC 582 may communicate using theservices provided respectively by UE PDCP 566 and gNB PDCP 584.According to some aspects, UE NAS 562 and AMF NAS 592 may communicateusing the services provided respectively by UE RRC 564 and gNB RRC 582.

The UE and gNB may communicate using a radio frame structure that has apredetermined duration and repeats in a periodic manner with arepetition interval equal to the predetermined duration. The radio framemay be divided into two or more subframes. In an aspect, subframes maybe of predetermined duration which may be unequal. In an alternativeaspect, subframes may be of a duration which is determined dynamicallyand varies between subsequent repetitions of the radio frame. In anaspect of frequency division duplexing (FDD), the downlink radio framestructure is transmitted by a base station to one or devices, and uplinkradio frame structure transmitted by a combination of one or moredevices to a base station. The radio frame may have a duration of 10 ms.The radio frame may be divided into slots each of duration 0.5 ms, andnumbered from 0 to 19. Additionally, each pair of adjacent slotsnumbered 2i and 2i+1, where i is an integer, may be referred to as asubframe. Each subframe may include a combination of one or more ofdownlink control information, downlink data information, uplink controlinformation and uplink data information. The combination of informationtypes and direction may be selected independently for each subframe.

According to some aspects, the downlink frame and uplink frame may havea duration of 10 ms, and uplink frame may be transmitted with a timingadvance with respect to downlink frame. According to some aspects, thedownlink frame and uplink frame may each be divided into two or moresubframes which may be 1 ms in duration. According to come us peels,each subframe may consist of one or more clots. In some aspects, thetime intervals may be represented in units of T_(s). According to someaspects, T_(s) may be defined as 1/(30,720×1000) seconds. According tosome aspects, a radio frame may be defined as having duration 30,720,T_(s), and a slot may be defined as having duration 15,360, T_(s).According to some aspects, T_(s) may be defined asT _(s)=1/(Δf _(max) , N _(f)),

where Δf_(max)=480×10³ and Nf=4,096. According to some aspects E, thenumber of slots may be determined based on a numerology parameter, whichmay be related to a frequency spacing between subcarriers of amulticarrier signal used for transmission.

Constellation designs of a single carrier modulation scheme that may betransmitted or received may contain 2 points, known as binary phaseshift keying (BPSK), 4 points, known as quadrature phase shift keying(QPSK), 16 points, known as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with16 points (16QAM or QAM16) or higher order modulation constellations,containing for example 64, 256 or 1024 points. In the constellations,the binary codes are assigned to the points of the constellation using ascheme such that nearest-neighbor points, that is, pairs of pointsseparated from each other by the minimum Euclidian distance, have anassigned binary code differing by only one binary digit. For example,the point assigned code 1000 has nearest neighbor points assigned codes1001, 0000, 1100 and 1010, each of which differs from 1000 by only onebit.

Alternatively, the constellation points may be arranged in a squaregrid, and may be arranged such that there is an equal distance on thein-phase and quadrature plane between each pair of nearest-neighborconstellation points. In an aspect, the constellation points may bechosen such that there is a pre-determined maximum distance from theorigin of the in-phase and quadrature plane of any of the allowedconstellation points, the maximum distance represented by a circle. Inan aspect, the set of allowed constellation points may exclude thosethat would fall within square regions at the corners of a square grid.The constellation points are shown on orthogonal in-phase and quadratureaxes, representing, respectively, amplitudes of sinusoids at the carrierfrequency and separated in phase from one another by 90 degrees. In anaspect, the constellation points are grouped into two or more sets ofconstellation points, the points of each set being arranged to have anequal distance to the origin of the in-phase and quadrature plane, andlying on one of a set of circles centered on the origin.

To generate multicarrier baseband signals for transmission, data may beinput to an encoder to generate encoded data. The encoder may include acombination of one or more of error detecting, error correcting, ratematching, and interleaving. The encoder may further include a step ofscrambling. In an aspect, encoded data may be input to a modulationmapper to generate complex valued modulation symbols. The modulationmapper may map groups containing one or more binary digits, selectedfrom the encoded data, to complex valued modulation symbols according toone or more mapping tables. In art aspect, complex-valued modulationsymbols may be input to the layer mapper to be mapped to one or morelayer mapped modulation symbol streams. Representing a stream ofmodulation symbols 440 as d(i) where i represents a sequence numberindex, and the one or more streams of layer mapped symbols as x^((k))(i)where k represents a stream number index and i represents a sequencenumber index, the layer mapping function for a single layer may beexpressed as:x ⁽⁰⁾(i)=d(i)

and the layer mapping for two layers may be expressed as:x ⁽⁰⁾(i)=d(2i)x ⁽¹⁾(i)=d(2i+1)

Layer mapping may be similarly represented for more than two layers.

In an aspect, one or more streams of layer mapped symbols may be inputto the precoder which generates one or more streams of precoded symbols.Representing the one or more streams of layer mapped symbols as a blockof vectors:[x ⁽⁰⁾(i) . . . x ^((v−1))(i)]^(T)

where i represents a sequence number index in the range 0 to M_(symb)^(layer)−1 he output is represented as a block of vectors:[z ⁽⁰⁾(i) . . . z ^((p−1))(i)]^(T)

where i represents a sequence number index in the range 0 to M_(symb)^(up)−1. The preceding operation may be configured to include one ofdirect mapping using a single antenna port, transmit diversity usingspace-time block coding, or spatial multiplexing.

In an aspect, each stream of preceded symbols may be input to a resourcemapper which generates a stream of resource mapped symbols. The resourcemapper may map preceded symbols to frequency domain subcarriers and timedomain symbols according to a mapping which may include contiguous blockmapping, randomized mapping or sparse mapping according to a mappingcode.

In an aspect, the resource mapped symbols may be input to multicarriergenerator which generates a time domain baseband symbol. Multicarriergenerator may generate time domain symbols using, for example, aninverse discrete Fourier transform (DFT), commonly implemented as aninverse fast Fourier transform (FFT) or a filter bank comprising one ormore filters. In an aspect, where resource mapped symbols 455 arerepresented as s_(k)(i), where k is a subcarrier index and i is a symbolnumber index, a time domain complex baseband symbol x(t) may berepresented as:

${x(t)} = {\sum\limits_{k}{{s_{k}(i)}{p_{T}\left( {t - T_{sym}} \right)}{\exp\left\lbrack {j2\pi{f_{k}\left( {t - T_{sym} - \tau_{k}} \right)}} \right\rbrack}}}$

Where p

(t) is a prototype filler function, T_(sym) is the start time of thesymbol period, τ_(k) is a subcarrier dependent time offset, and f_(k) isthe frequency of subcarrier k. Prototype functions p

(t) may be, for example, rectangular time domain pulses, Gaussian timedomain pulses or any other suitable function.

In some aspects, a sub-component of a transmitted signal consisting ofone subcarrier in the frequency domain and one symbol interval in thetime domain may be termed a resource element. Resource elements may bedepicted in a grid form. In some aspects, resource elements may begrouped into rectangular resource blocks consisting of 12 subcarriers inthe frequency domain and the P symbols in the time domain, where P maycorrespond to the number of symbols contained in one slot, and may be 6,7, or any other suitable number of symbols. In some alternative aspects,resource elements may be grouped into resource blocks consisting of 12subcarriers in the frequency domain and one symbol in the time domain.Each resource element 05 may be indexed as (k, l) where k is the indexnumber of subcarrier, in the range 0 to N.M−1, where N is the number ofsubcarriers in a resource block, and M is the number of resource blocksspanning a component carrier in the frequency domain.

In some aspects, coding of the signal to be transmitted may include oneor more physical coding processes that may be used to provide coding fora physical channel that may encode data or control information. Codingmay also include multiplexing and interleaving that generates combinedcoded information by combining information from one or more sources,which may include one of more of data information and controlinformation, and which may have been encoded by one or more physicalcoding processes. The combined coded information may be input to ascrambler which may generate scrambled coded information. Physicalcoding process may include one or more of CRC attachment, code blocksegmentation, channel coding, rate matching and code blockconcatenation. An encoder that may be used to encode data according toone of a convolutional code and a tail-biting convolutional code.

A MAC entity that may be used to implement medium access control layerfunctions may include one or more of a controller, a logical channelprioritizing unit, a channel multiplexer & de-multiplexer, a PDU filterunit, random access protocol entity, data hybrid automatic repeatrequest protocol (HARQ) entity and broadcast HARQ entity. According tosome aspects, a higher layer may exchange control and status messageswith controller via management service access point. According to someaspects, MAC service data units (SDU) corresponding to one or morelogical channels may be exchanged with the MAC entity via one or moreservice access points (SAP). According to some aspects, a PHY SDUcorresponding to one or more transport channels may be exchanged with aphysical layer entity via one or more SAPs. According to some aspects,the logical channel prioritization unit may perform prioritizationamongst one or more logical channels, which may include storingparameters and state information corresponding to each of the one ormore logical channels, that may be initialized when a logical channel isestablished. According to some aspects, the logical channelprioritization unit may be configured with a set of parameters for eachof one or more logical channels, each set including parameters which mayinclude one or more of a prioritized bit rate (PBR) and a bucket sizeduration (BSD).

According to some aspects, the multiplexer & de-multiplexer may generateMAC PDUs, which may include one or more of MAC-SDUs or partial MAC-SDUscorresponding to one or more logical channels, a MAC header which mayinclude one or more MAC sub-headers, one or more MAC control elements,and padding data. According to some aspects, the multiplexer &de-multiplexer may separate one or more MAC-SDUs or partial MAC-SDUscontained in a received MAC PDU, corresponding to one or more logicalchannels, and may indicate the one or more MAC-SDUs or partial MAC-SDUsto a higher layer via one or more service access points. According tosome aspects, the HARQ entity and broadcast HARQ entity may include oneor more parallel HARQ processes, each of which may be associated with aHARQ identifier, and which may be one of a receive or transmit HARQprocess.

According to some aspects, a transmit HARQ process may generate atransport block (TB) to be encoded by the PHY according to a specifiedredundancy version (RV), by selecting a MAC-PDU for transmission.According to some aspects, a transmit HARQ process that is included in abroadcast HARQ entity may retransmit a same TB in successive transmitintervals a predetermined number of times. According to some aspects, atransmit HARQ process included in a HARQ entity may determine whether toretransmit a previously transmitted TB or to transmit a new TB at atransmit time based on whether a positive acknowledgement or a negativeacknowledgement was received for a previous transmission.

According to some aspects, a receive HARQ process may be provided withencoded data corresponding to one or more received TBs and which may beassociated with one or more of a new data indication (NDI) and aredundancy version (RV), and the receive HARQ process may determinewhether each such received encoded data block corresponds to aretransmission of a previously received TB or a not previously receivedTB. According to some aspects, a receive HARQ process may include abuffer, which may be implemented as a memory or other suitable storagedevice, and may be used to store data based on previously received datafor a TB. According to some aspects, a receive HARQ process may attemptto decode a TB, the decoding based on received data for the TB, andwhich may be additionally be based on the stored data based onpreviously received data for the TB.

FIG. 6 illustrates an architecture of a system of a network inaccordance with some embodiments. The system 600 is shown to include auser equipment (UE) 601 and a UE 602. The UEs 601 and 602 areillustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computingdevices connectable to one of more cellular networks), but may alsocomprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as PersonalData Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers,wireless handsets, or any computing device including a wirelesscommunications interface.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 601 and 602 can comprise an Internetof Things (IoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designedfor low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. AnIoT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or MTCfor exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public landmobile network (PLMN). Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) ordevice-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks.The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange ofdata. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which mayinclude uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within theInternet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs mayexecute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, statusupdates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 601 and 602 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicativelycouple, with a radio access network (RAN) 610—the RAN 610 may be, forexample, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), orsome other type of RAN. The UEs 601 and 602 utilize connections 603 and604, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communicationsinterface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example,the connections 603 and 604 are illustrated as an air interface toenable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellularcommunications protocols, such as a Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA)network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular(POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a 5G protocol, aNew Radio (NR) protocol, and the like

In this embodiment, the UEs 601 and 602 may further directly exchangecommunication data via a ProSe interface 605. The ProSe interface 605may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising oneor more logical channels, including but not limited to a PhysicalSidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel(PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a PhysicalSidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE 602 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 606via connection 607. The connection 607 can comprise a local wirelessconnection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11protocol, wherein the AP 606 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi)router. In this example, the AP 606 is shown to be connected to theInternet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system(described in further detail below).

The RAN 610 can include one or more access nodes that enable theconnections 603 and 604. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to asbase stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next GenerationNodeBs (gNBs), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations(e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providingcoverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN 610 mayinclude one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RANnode 611, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells orpicocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller usercapacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power(LP) RAN node 612.

Any of the RAN nodes 611 and 612 can terminate the air interfaceprotocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 601 and 602.In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 611 and 612 can fulfillvarious logical functions for the RAN 610 including, but not limited to,radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearermanagement, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management anddata packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 601 and 602 can beconfigured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any ofthe RAN nodes 611 and 612 over a multicarrier communication channel inaccordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limned to,an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communicationtechnique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single CarrierFrequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technique(e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although thescope of the embodiments is not limned in this respect. The OFDM signalscan comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data andhigher-layer signaling to the UEs 601 and 602. The physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport formatand resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among otherthings. It may also inform the UEs 601 and 602 about the transportformat, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request)information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlinkscheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to theUE 602 within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 611 and612 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs601 and 602. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent onthe PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 601 and 602.

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for controlinformation transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one ormore enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above,each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may haveother numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN 610 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network(CN) 620—via an S1 or NG interface 613. In embodiments, the CN 620 maybe an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a 5GC network, or some othertype of CN. In this embodiment, the S1 interface 613 is split into twoparts, the S1-U interface 614, which carries traffic data between theRAN nodes 611 and 612 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 622, and theS1-mobility management entity (MME) interface 615, which is a signalinginterface between the RAN nodes 611 and 612 and MMEs 621.

In this embodiment, the CN 620 comprises the MMEs 61, the S-GW 622, thePacket Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 623, and a home subscriberserver (HSS) 624. The MMEs 621 may be similar in function to the controlplane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) SupportNodes (SGSN). The MMEs 621 may manage mobility aspects in access such asgateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 624 maycomprise a database for network users, including subscription-relatedinformation to support the network entities' handling of communicationsessions. The CN 620 may comprise one or several HSSs 624, depending onthe number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, onthe organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 624 canprovide support for routing roaming, authentication, authorization,naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

The S-GW 622 may terminate the S1 interface 613 towards the RAN 610, androutes data packets between the RAN 610 and the CN 620. In addition, theS-GW 622 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN nodehandovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Otherresponsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policyenforcement.

The P-GW 623 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 623may route data packets between the EPC network 623 and external networkssuch as a network including the application server 630 (alternativelyreferred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP)interface 625. Generally, the application server 630 may be an elementoffering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network(e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LIE PS data services, etc.). Inthis embodiment, the P-GW 623 is shown to be communicatively coupled toan application server 630 via an IP communications interface 625. Theapplication server 630 can also be configured to support one or morecommunication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP)sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networkingservices, etc.) for the UEs 601 and 602 via the CN 620.

The P-GW 623 may further be a node for policy enforcement and chargingdata collection. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 626 is thepolicy and charging control element of the CN 620. In a non-roamingscenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land MobileNetwork (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol ConnectivityAccess Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with localbreakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE'sIP-CAN session, a Home PCRF (H-FCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF(V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF626 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 630 via theP-GW 623. The application server 630 may signal the PCRF 626 to indicatea new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS)and charging parameters. The PCRF 626 may provision this rule into aPolicy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with theappropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier(QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by theapplication server 630.

The component of FIG. 6 are able to read instructions from amachine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. In particular, the processors (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing(RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor,a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) suchas a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit(ASTC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor,or any suitable combination thereof) may read and follow theinstructions on a non-transitory medium.

Instructions may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussedherein. The instructions may reside, completely or partially, within atleast one of the processors (e.g., within the processor's cache memory),the memory/storage devices, or any suitable combination thereof. In someembodiments, the instructions may reside on a tangible, non-volatilecommunication device readable medium, which may include a single mediumor multiple media. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions may betransferred to the hardware resources from any combination of theperipheral devices or the databases 606. Accordingly, the memory ofprocessors, the memory/storage devices, the peripheral devices, and thedatabases are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

As above, a 5G device may include physical layer circuitry fortransmitting and receiving signals using one or more antennas. Theantennas on the UE or gNB may permit the device to use beamforming. Thebeamforming may be provided via one or more of a directional antenna,phased array antennas, or antennas with multiple apertures fordirectional transmissions. Tracking may be used to train an analogbeamforming matrix to obtain an optimal direction to communicate andperform wideband channel sounding, which can be used in physical controlchannel decoding and digital beamforming refinement.

In the LTE system, various types of reference signals (RS) may betransmitted by the gNB for a UE to measure. The reference signals mayinclude, for example, cell-specific reference signals (CRS-RS),UE-specific reference signals (DMRS) or Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals (CSI-RS). The CRS-RS may be used for cellsearch and initial acquisition, demodulation and channel qualityestimation. The DMRS may be used for PDSCSH demodulation by the UE, aswell as for handover. The number and type of downlink reference signalshas increased with newer generations of LTE networks, which has led toissues due to the increased number of antennas, antenna panels andantenna ports. In particular, the gNB and/or UE may use specific RSs inbeamforming to increase data throughput or quality.

One of the aspects of beamforming is beam management. Beam management isdescribed in 3GPP TR.38.802. Beam management may include a set of L1/L2procedures to acquire and maintain a set of Transmission ReceptionPoints (TRPs) (gNBs) and/or UE beams that can be used for DL and ULtransmission/reception. Beam management may include beam determinationfor a TRP or UE to select its own Tx/Rx beams, beam measurement for theTRP or UE to measure characteristics of received beamformed signals,beam reporting for UE to report information of beamformed signal(s)based on beam measurement, and beam sweeping to cover a spatial area,with beams transmitted and/or received during a time interval in apredetermined way.

In some embodiments, beam management may include 3 types of DL beammanagement procedures, each of which may be associated with a set of oneor more reference signals, P-1 may be used for initial gNB-UE beam pairacquisition, P-2 may be used for gNB beam refinement, and P-3 may beused for UE beam refinement. In some embodiments, the beam reporting andthe beam management reference signal may be decoupled. The beamreporting may occur after all three procedures take place, which in turnmay cause ambiguity in the determination between live beam reporting andbeam management procedure.

In addition, in some UEs, such as MTC UEs or other UEs with limitedprocessing power, the AGC may have a limited range. However, to measurethe top 6 Tx beams, it may be desirable for the AGC to reserve a 5 bitmargin and to measure the top 6 Rx beams, it may be desirable for theAGC to reserve a 3 bit margin, since the maximum gap between the top 6Tx beams can be 14 dB and between the top 6 Rx beams can be 9 dB.Therefore, to measure P-1, the UE may reserve a 5+3=8 bit margin.However, some UEs may be unable to measure P-1 as a result of a bitwidth limitation in the AGC. In some embodiments, the UE may only havean omni-directional antenna, which may negate the effectiveness of P-3.If beam correspondence can be assumed on the gNB side, the gNB mayselect the SRS for beam refinement. It thus may be desirable todetermine how to configure the beam management procedure. In variousembodiments beam forming management may include UE capability andrecommendation, a gNB configuration and beam reporting for multipleprocedures.

The measurement and beam reporting for all the beam managementprocedures may be based on Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) orReference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) of the associated set ofreference signals. As the beam management reference signal and beamreporting for each procedure may be decoupled, when the gNB triggersbeam reporting by the UE, which procedure is to be captured may beunclear.

In some embodiments, multiple reference signal processes may be used forbeam management. As above, in some embodiment, the reference signals maybe CSI-RS, which may be used for each beam of the procedure. In otherembodiments, other reference signals, such as demodulation referencesignals (DMRS) or specialized reference signals may be used. The one ormore of the CSI-RS processes may be configurable. This is to say that atleast one of the following may be configurable by the gNB for aparticular process: the number of symbols, the number of sub-time unitswithin one symbol (e.g. configurable repetition factors and/ornumerologies), the transmission mechanisms (e.g., cell-specific, UEspecific or UE-group specific, periodic or aperiodic), the number ofCSI-RS resources, the number of CSI-RS antenna ports, the number oflinks, the reporting settings, the number of antenna ports per beam, orthe interference measurement resource (IMR) setting. Which CSI-RSprocess parameters are provided by the CSI-RS configuration may be thesame or may be different among the CSI-RS processes. In someembodiments, at least one default CSI-RS process with a periodic andcell-specific transmission mechanism may be included in the CSI-RSconfiguration.

In one example, K is the number of Tx beams and N is the number of Rxbeams, where K and N are independent. In the following discussion, K andN are assumed for convenience to be the same number of beams for eachprocess. In general, however, the number of beams for the differentprocesses are not so restricted.

In one example of CSI-RS resource setting, the P-1 process may have KCSI-RS resources. Each CSI-RS resource may have N ports. During eachCSI-RS resource, the gNB Tx beam may not change. The gNB may formdifferent beams for different CSI-RS resources. The UE may report aCSI-RS resource ID for Tx beam selection. In some embodiments, the UEmay perform a Rx beam sweep within the CSI-RS resource.

The P-2 process may configure K CSI-RS resources with 1 port each. ThegNB may form different beams for the different CSI-RS resources. The UEmay report a CSI-RS resource ID for Tx beam selection.

The P-3 process may configure 1 CSI-RS resource with N ports. During theCSI-RS resource, the gNB Tx beam may not change. The UE may perform a Rxbeam sweep within the CSI-RS resource to find the best Rx beam.

In another example of CSI-RS resource setting, the P-1 process may haveN CSI-RS resources. Each CSI-RS resource may have K ports. During eachCSI-RS resource, the same gNB Tx beam max be used for the same portnumber for different CSI-RS ports. The gNB may form different beams fordifferent CSI-RS resources. The UE may report a CSI-RS port number forTx beam selection. The UE may perform a Rx beam sweep for each CSI-RSresource.

The P-2 process may configure 1 CSI-RS resource with K ports. The gNBmay form different beams for the different CSI-RS ports. The UE mayimport a CSI-RS port number for Tx beam selection.

The P-3 process may configure N CSI-RS resources with 1 port. The UE mayform different Rx beams to find the best Rx beam.

In some embodiments, the gNB may indicate the beam management referencesignal type or beam management process ID when triggering beamreporting. The indication may be provided by the Downlink ControlInformation (DCI) of a PDCCH used to trigger the beam reporting. In someembodiments, the beam management reference signal type or beammanagement process ID can be indicated when triggering the transmissionof the beam management reference signal in addition or instead.

In response to reception of the indication, the UE may report themeasurement results for the latest received corresponding referencesignal. This is shown in FIG. 7 , which illustrates single procedurebased beam reporting in accordance with some embodiments. The time andfrequency resources that can be used by the UE to report the CSI maythus be controlled by the gNB. The UE and gNB may be shown in any ofFIGS. 1-6 . Other operations may occur during the time period indicated,but are not shown for convenience. Here, as in the other figures anddescriptions, the transmitting entity may encode signals, such as thereference signals, for transmission so the receiving entity and thereceiving entity may decode the signals prior to engaging in furtherprocessing of the signals. The reporting configuration for the CSI canbe aperiodic (using the PUSCH) or periodic (using the PUCCH), and theCSI-RS resources can be periodic or aperiodic.

As shown in FIG. 7 , the UE may provide beam reporting for the mostrecent procedure. In this embodiment, the UE may ignore beam reportingfor procedures other than the most recent. In some embodiments, the beamreporting may be for procedure k. Procedure k may be indicated in thetrigger from the gNB. Alternatively, procedure k may be a predeterminednumber of beams prior to the beam report (e.g., N where N>1, rather than1 (the most recent). In other embodiments, the beam repotting may be fora single procedure that is within a predetermined time period prior tothe beam reporting, in which the time period may be immediately prior tothe beam reporting or in a window whose termination is a predeterminedtime prior to the beam reporting.

Rather than merely reporting a single procedure, in other embodimentsmultiple procedures can be reported on using a single beam report. FIG.8 illustrates multi-procedure based beam reporting in accordance withsome embodiments. As above, the UE and gNB may be shown in any of FIGS.1-6 . Other operations may occur during the time period indicated, butare not shown for convenience.

In some embodiments, the gNB may use a bitmap to indicate amulti-procedure based beam reporting. For example, the bitmap may have 3bits in which bit k is used to indicate procedure k, where value 0 mayindicate the beam reporting for procedure k is not to be transmitted andvalue 1 may indicate the beam reporting is to be transmitted.Alternatively, in some embodiments the 3 different proceduresimmediately preceding the trigger may be automatically reported. Invarious embodiments, the order of reporting (e.g., which beam report isfirst) may be predetermined.

In some embodiments, rather than perpetually reporting on one ormultiple beams, either periodic or aperiodic beam reporting may be used.FIG. 9 illustrates periodic and aperiodic beam reporting in accordancewith some embodiments. As above, the UE and gNB may be shown in any ofFIGS. 1-6 . Other operations may occur during the time period indicated,but are not shown for convenience.

As indicated, one or more of the beam management signals may beperiodically reported and one or more of the beam management signals maybe aperiodically reported. As shown in FIG. 9 , the beam managementsignal P-1 can be a periodic beam management reference signal and thebeam management signals P-2 and P-3 can be aperiodic beam managementreference signals. Then when triggering the beam reporting, the gNB mayindicate whether the beam reporting is targeting for a periodicreference signal or an aperiodic reference signal. In some embodiments,the indication may be provided by the DCI.

If the trigger is used to trigger a report for a periodic referencesignal, the beam management P-1 based beam reporting may be used. Thatis, the measurements of the most recent P-1 procedure may be reported.Otherwise the UE may report the beam reporting for the latest beammanagement procedure (which may be selected by the DCI or higher layersignaling between P-2 and P-3). Note that thee order of the referencesignal transmissions may be different from that shown in FIG. 9 . Forexample, the reference signal for P-2 and P-3 may be transmitted afterthe beam reporting for P-1. In some embodiments, the periodic triggermay not be used to trigger reporting for aperiodic procedures and theaperiodic trigger may not be used to trigger reporting for periodicprocedures.

Although shown in FIGS. 7-9 that the trigger and beam reporting occuradjacent in time, this may not be the case. If the trigger and beamreporting are separated in time, a reference signal may be transmittedbetween the beam reporting trigger and beam reporting slot. In thiscase, whether the beam reporting takes the intermediate reference signalinto account may be pre-defined, configured by higher layer signaling,configured by the DCI or based on the UE implementation in variousembodiments. In the last embodiment, the UE may be able to determinewhether the reference signal is to be considered for beam reporting.

In some embodiments, the UE may always report the beam state for thelatest beam management reference signal. Thus, the UE may report thebeam state for the beam management P-3. Alternatively, the UE may reportthe beam state for all beam management procedures which have not beenpreviously reported. In another embodiment, thee UE may select onlycertain beam procedures to report.

The beam reporting content may include some or all of various pieces ofinformation. For example, the beam report may include the beammanagement reference signal type, process ID or subframe/slot index thatis used to indicate the beam management procedure to be reported. Thebeam report may include the port index or CSI-RS resource index (CRI)for one or more of the beams. The beam report may also include the RSRPand or RSRQ for one or more of the beams.

Whether a UE is able to, or should, measure certain beam formingreference signals may be dependent on the particular UE or gNB. Forexample, a UE that has an AGC bit width limitation to measure the P-1,and may be unable to measure the reference signal for P-1. Also, a UEmay only have an omni- directional antenna, rather than one or moredirectional antennas, or may desire to switch to use of omni-directionalantenna from a directional antenna to achieve a high rank transmission.In this case, the UE may not desire to measure the P-3 reference signal,for example, to conserve resources. In addition, when P-2 should be usedmay also be determined by the beam correspondence and implementation ofthe gNB.

FIG. 10 illustrates a beam management procedure configuration inaccordance with some embodiments. As above, the UE 1010 and gNB 1020 maybe shown in any of FIGS. 1-6 . Other operations may occur during thetime period indicated, but are not shown for convenience. As shown inFIG. 10 , the UE 1010 may report capability information to the gNB 1020in a UE capability report. The capability information may includecapability of the UB 1010 related specifically to beam forming. Forexample, the capability information may include whether the UE 1010 canmeasure P-1. The capability information may also or instead includewhether the UE 1010 wishes to perform beam refinement (P-3). Thecapacity information may be provided to the gNB 1020 during initialattachment or reconnection, for example. The capability information mayin addition indicate whether Rx beam forming is able to be used by theUE 1010. The gNB 1020 may respond to the UB capability information witha confirmation of which beamforming procedures are to be used.

In some cases, such as when the link budget for the UE 1010 is good, theUE 1010 may switch to use of an omni-directional antenna to achieve ahigh rank transmission. In this case, Rx beam sweeping by the UE 1010may be avoided. In addition to providing an indication of whether Rxbeam refinement is able to be performed in the capability information,the UE 1010 may recommend whether P-3 should be used after receiving thegNB confirmation. The UE 1010 may communicate this informationdynamically by higher layer signaling. In response to the higher layersignaling, the gNB 1020 may provide a confirmation of the beamformingreference signals to measure. The gNB 1020 may also determine whetherP-2 is to continue to be used.

For the above embodiments, whether a particular beam managementprocedure is to be enabled may have an impact on the bit width of thebeam management reference signal type or beam management process ID. Iftwo beam management procedures are to be used only 1 bit may besufficient. If all beam management procedures are used, 2 bits mayinstead be used. Thus, although whether P-2 should be enabled isdetermined by the beam correspondence and implementation of the gNB1020, the gNB 1020 may indicate to the UE 1010 higher layer signalingwhether P-2 could be used

Table 5.2.1.4-1 summarizes one embodiment of triggering or activation ofCSI reporting for different CSI-RS configurations. Aperiodic CSI-RS maybe used for P-2 when a higher layer parameter CSI-RS-ResourceRep is“OFF” and used for P-3 when CSI-RS-ResourceRep is “ON”. Periodic andSemi-Persistent CSI-RS may be used for P-1.

TABLE 5.2.1.4-1 Triggering/Activation of CSI Reporting for CST-RSConfigurations CSI-RS Periodic Semi-Persistent Aperiodic CSIConfiguration CSI Reporting CSI Reporting Reporting Periodic No dynamicFor reporting on Triggered by DCI; CSI-RS triggering/ PUCCH, the UEAdditionally, activation receives an activation activation commandcommand [10, TS 38.321]; for [10, TS 38.321] reporting on possible asdefined PUSCH, the UE in Subclause receives triggering 5.2.1.5.1. on DCISemi-Persistent Not Supported For reporting on Triggered by DCI; CSI-RSPUCCH, the UE additionally. receives an activation activation commandcommand [10, TS 38.321]; for [10, TS 38.32 1] reporting on possible asdefined PUSCH, the UE in Subclause receives triggering 5.2.1.5.1. on DCIAperiodic Not Supported Not Supported Triggered by DCI; CSI-RSadditionally, activation command [10, TS 38.321] possible as defined inSubclause 5.2.1.5.1.

The UE may calculate CSI parameters (if reported) assuming the followingdependencies between CSI parameters (if reported): LI calculatedconditioned on the reported CQI, PMI, RI and CRI, CQI calculatedconditioned on the reported PMI, RI and CRI, PMI calculated conditionedon the reported RI and CRI and RI calculated conditioned on the reportedCRI.

The Reporting configuration for CSI can be aperiodic (using PUSCH),periodic (using PUCCH) or semi-persistent (using PUCCH, and DCIactivated PUSCH). The CSI-RS Resources can be periodic, semi-persistent,or aperiodic. Table 5.2.1.4-1 shows the supported combinations of CSIReporting configurations and CSI-RS Resource configurations and how theCSI Reporting is triggered for each CSI-RS Resource configuration.Periodic CSI-RS may be configured by higher layers. Semi-persistentCSI-RS may be activated and deactivated as described in Subclause5.2.1.5.2 of TS 38.214. Aperiodic CSI-RS may be configured andtriggered/activated as described in Subclause 5.2.1.5.1 of TS 38.214.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE), the apparatuscomprising: processing circuitry arranged to: decode beam managementreference signals from a next generation NodeB (gNB), each beammanagement reference signal associated with a different beam managementprocedure, decode a beam reporting message after measurement of at leastsome of the beam management reference signals, the beam reportingmessage configured to indicate at least one of the beam managementprocedures; and encode, for transmission to the gNB, a beam report, thebeam report comprising beam management reference signal measurements ofthe at least one of the beam management procedures; and a memoryconfigured to store measurements of the beam management referencesignals.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 includes, wherein: thebeam management reference signals comprise Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals (CSI-RS).

In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 2 includes, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to: decode, from the gNB, abeam management processes configuration prior to reception of theCSI-RS, the beam management processes configuration configured toprovide information about the CST-RS for at least one of the beammanagement procedures.

In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3 includes, wherein: thebeam management processes configuration comprises, for a CSI-RS process,at least one of a number of symbols, a number of sub-time units withinone symbol a transmission mechanism, a number of CSI-RS resources, anumber of CSI-RS antenna ports, a number of links, reposting settings, anumber of antenna ports per beam, or an interference measurementresource (IMR) setting.

In Example 5, the subject matter of Example 4 includes, wherein: thesub-time units for a CSI-RS of the CSI-RS process comprise at least oneof: a number of symbols, a number of repetitions or a value ofnumerology or subcarrier spacing.

In Example 6, the subject matter of Examples 4-5 includes, wherein: thetransmission mechanism indicates whether a CSI-RS is cell-specific,UE-specific or UE-group specific and whether the CSI-RS is periodic oraperiodic.

In Example 7, the subject matter of Examples 2-6 includes, wherein: thebeam management processes configuration comprises a default CSI-RSprocess with at least one of a periodic or cell-specific transmissionmechanism.

In Example 8, the subject matter of Examples 1-7 includes, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to: decode a Downlink ControlInformation (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) thattriggers transmission of the beam report, the DCI indicating a beammanagement reference signal or Channel State Information-ReferenceSignals (CSI-RS) type, a CSI-RS process identification or a slot,subframe or frame index when the CSI-RS for beam management istransmitted, and select a corresponding beam management procedure orCSI-RS process to report a measurement result dependent on the DCI.

In Example 9, the subject matter of Examples 1-8 includes, wherein: theprocessing circuitry is further configured to decode a Downlink ControlInformation (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) thattriggers transmission of the beam report, the DCI comprises a bitmapthat indicates which beam management procedure or CSI-RS process totarget for the beam report, and each bit in the bitmap corresponds to adifferent beam management process.

In Example 10, the subject matter of Examples 1-9 includes, wherein: theprocessing circuitry is further configured to decode a Downlink ControlInformation (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) thattriggers transmission of the beam report, and the DCI comprises anindicator that indicates which of periodic or aperiodic beam managementreference signals to target for the beam report.

In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 10 includes, wherein: thebeam report comprises a latest set of periodic beam management referencesignals or a latest set of aperiodic beam management reference signals,dependent on the indicator.

In Example 12, the subject matter of Examples 1-11 includes, wherein:the processing circuitry is further configured to encode, fortransmission to the gNB, a UE capability report prior to reception ofthe beam management reference signals, the UE capability reportcomprises beam management capabilities of the UE, and the beammanagement capabilities of the UE comprise at least one of whether theUE is able to receive the beam management reference signals associatedwith a particular beam management procedure, a maximum number of beamsable to b measured by the UE or a beamforming gain fluctuation among thebeam measurement procedures.

In Example 13, the subject matter of Example 12 includes, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to: encode, for transmissionto the gNB via higher layer signaling, an indication of whether the UEintends to engage in beam refinement after the UE capability reportindicates that the UE is able to engage in beam refinement.

In Example 14, the subject matter of Examples 1-13 includes, wherein:the processing circuitry comprises a baseband processor configured toencode transmissions to, and decode transmissions from, the gNB.

Example 15 is an apparatus of a next generation evolved NodeB (gNB), theapparatus comprising: processing circuitry arranged to: encode, fortransmission to a user equipment (UE), a beam management procedureconfiguration that provides information about beam managementprocedures; encode, for transmission to the UE, beam managementreference signals associated with the beam management proceduresindicated by the beam management procedure configuration; encode, fortransmission to the UE, a beam reporting message that indicates at leastone of the beam management procedures for the UE to report in a beamreport; and decode, from the UE, the beam report, the beam reportcomprising measurements of the beam management reference signals of theat least one of the beam management procedures; and a memory configuredto store measurements of the beam management reference signals receivedin the beam report.

In Example 16, the subject matter of Example 15 includes, wherein: thebeam management processes configuration comprises for a Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals (CSI-RS) process at least one of: a numberof symbols, a number of sub-time units within one symbol, a transmissionmechanism, a number of CSI-RS resources, a number of CSI-RS antennaports, a number of links, reporting settings, a number of antenna portsper beam, or an interference measurement resource (IMR) setting.

In Example 17, the subject matter of Example 16 includes, wherein: thesub-time units for a CSI-RS of the CSI-RS process comprise at least oneof a number of symbols, a number of repetitions or a value of numerologyor subcarrier spacing.

In Example 18, the subject matter of Examples 16-17 includes, wherein:the transmission mechanism indicates whether a CSI-RS is cell-specific,UE-specific or UE-group specific, and whether the CSI-RS is periodic oraperiodic.

In Example 19, the subject matter of Examples 15-18 includes, wherein:the beam management processes configuration comprises at least onedefault CSI-RS process with a periodic and cell-specific transmissionmechanism.

In Example 20, the subject matter of Examples 15-19 includes, wherein:the processing circuitry is further configured to encode a DownlinkControl Information (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)that triggers transmission of the beam report, and the DCI indicates abeam management reference signal or CSI-RS type, a CSI-RS processidentification or a slot, subframe or frame index when the CSI-RS forbeam management is transmitted, and the DCI indicates a correspondingbeam management procedure or CSI-RS process to report a measurementresult.

In Example 21, the subject matter of Examples 15-20 includes, wherein:the processing circuitry is further configured to encode a DownlinkControl Information (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)that triggers transmission of the beam report, the DCI comprises abitmap that indicates which beam management procedure or CSI-RS processto target for the beam report, and each bit in the bitmap corresponds toa different beam management process.

In Example 22, the subject matter of Examples 15-21 includes, wherein:the processing circuitry is further configured to encode a DownlinkControl Information (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)that triggers transmission of the beam report and the DCI comprises anindicator that indicates which of periodic or aperiodic beam managementreference signals to target for the beam report.

In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 22 includes, wherein: thebeam report comprises a latest set of periodic beam management referencesignals or a latest set of aperiodic beam management reference signals,dependent on the indicator.

In Example 24, the subject matter of Examples 15-23 includes, wherein:the processing circuitry is further configured to decode, from the UE, aUE capability report prior to reception of the beam management referencesignals and adjust transmission of the beam management reference signalsaccordingly, the UE capability report comprises beam managementcapabilities of the UE, and the beam management capabilities of the UEcomprise at least one of whether the UE is able to receive the beammanagement reference signals associated with a particular beammanagement procedure, a maximum number of beams able to be measured bythe UE or beamforming gain fluctuation among the beam measurementprocedures.

In Example 25, the subject matter of Example 24 includes, wherein: theprocessing circuitry is further configured to decode, from the UE viahigher layer signaling, an indication of whether the UE intends toengage in beam refinement after the UE capability report indicates thatthe UE is able to engage in beam refinement and adjust transmission ofthe beam management reference signals accordingly.

Example 26 is a computer-readable storage medium that storesinstructions for execution by one or more processors of a user equipment(UE), the one or more processors to configure the UE to, when theinstructions are executed: receive, from a next generation NodeB (gNB),a beam management processes configuration that provides informationabout beam management reference signals for at least one of a pluralityof beam management procedures; transmit to the gNB an indication of beammanagement capabilities of the UE; measure the beam management referencesignals from the gNB, the beam management reference signals dependent onthe beam management capabilities of the UE; receive a beam reportingmessage that indicates at least one of the beam management procedures toreport, and transmit to the gNB, the beam report, the beam reportcomprising beam management reference signal measurements of the at leastone of the beam management procedures.

In Example 27, the subject matter of Example 26 includes, wherein: theinstructions, when executed, further configure the UE to transmit to thegNB receive a Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) triggers beam reporting, and at least one of:the DCI indicates a beam management reference signal or Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals (CSI-RS) type, a CSI-RS processidentification or a slot, subframe or frame index, when the CSI-RS forbeam management is transmitted, and the instructions, when executed,further configure the UE to select a corresponding beam managementprocedure or CSI-RS process to report a measurement result dependent onthe DCI, or the DCI comprises a bitmap that indicates which beammanagement procedure or CSI-RS process to target for the beam report,and each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a different beam managementprocess.

In Example 28, the subject matter of Examples 26-27 includes, wherein:the instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to transmit tothe gNB receive a Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) triggers beam reporting, the DCIcomprises an indicator that indicates which of periodic or aperiodicbeam management reference signals to target for the beam report, and thebeam report comprises a latest set of periodic beam management referencesignals or a latest set of aperiodic beam management reference signals,dependent on the indicator.

In Example 29, the subject matter of Examples 26-28 includes, whereinthe instructions, when executed, further configure the UE to transmit tothe gNB: a UE capability report that comprises beam managementcapabilities of the UE, and an indication, via higher layer signaling,of whether the UE intends to engage in beam refinement after the UEcapability report indicates that the UE is able to engage in beamrefinement.

Example 30 is at least one machine-readable medium includinginstructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause theprocessing circuitry to perform operations to implement of any ofExamples 1-29.

Example 31 is an apparatus comprising means to implement of any ofExamples 1-29.

Example 32 is a system to implement of any of Examples 1-29.

Example 33 is a method to implement of any of Examples 1-29.

Although an embodiment has been described with reference to specificexample embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specificationand drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than arestrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a part hereofshow, by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specificembodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. Theembodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enablethose skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein.Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such thatstructural and logical substitutions and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description,therefore, is not so be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope ofvarious embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along withthe full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quicklyascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted withthe understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit thescope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing DetailedDescription, it can be seen that various features are grouped togetherin a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting anintention that the claimed embodiments require more features that areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separate embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a memory; andprocessing circuitry arranged to, when executing instructions stored inthe memory, cause the apparatus to: determine which of periodic oraperiodic beam management reference signals to target for a beamformingreport; measure the beam management reference signals from a basestation based on the determining; decode a Downlink Control Information(DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) that triggers beamreporting; and encode, for transmission to the base station, thebeamforming report, the beamforming report comprising beam managementreference signal measurements of the beam management reference signals.2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the beam management referencesignals comprise Channel State Information-Reference Signals (CSI-RS).3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherarranged to, when executing instructions stored in the memory, cause theapparatus to: decode, from the base station, a beam management processesconfiguration prior to reception of the CSI-RS, wherein the beammanagement processes configuration is configured to provide informationabout the CSI-RS for at least one of beam management procedure.
 4. Theapparatus of claim 3, wherein the beam management processesconfiguration comprises, for a CSI-RS process, at least one of: a numberof symbols, a number of sub-time units within one symbol, a transmissionmechanism, a number of CSI-RS resources, a number of CSI-RS antennaports, reporting settings, a number of antenna ports per beam, or aninterference measurement resource (IMR) setting.
 5. The apparatus ofclaim 4, wherein the sub-time units within one symbol comprise at leastone of: a number of symbols, a number of repetitions, or a value ofnumerology or subcarrier spacing; and wherein the transmission mechanismindicates at least whether a CSI-RS is cell-specific, UE-specific, orUE-group specific.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the transmissionmechanism further indicates whether the CSI-RS is periodic or aperiodic.7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the DCI includes a bitmapindicating a beam management procedure or a Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals (CSI-RS) process to target for beamreporting.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein each bit in the bitmapcorresponds to a beam management process.
 9. A user equipment (UE),comprising: a radio; and processing circuitry coupled to the radio andconfigured to: determine which of periodic or aperiodic beam managementreference signals to target for a beamforming report; measure the beammanagement reference signals from a base station based on thedetermining; decode a Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) that triggers beam reporting; andencode, for transmission to the base station, the beamforming report.10. The UE of claim 9, wherein the beamforming report comprises beammanagement reference signal measurements of the beam managementreference signals.
 11. The UE of claim 9, wherein the beam managementreference signals comprise Channel State Information-Reference Signals(CSI-RS).
 12. The UE of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to: decode, from the base station, a beam managementprocesses configuration prior to reception of the CSI-RS, wherein thebeam management processes configuration is configured to provideinformation about the CSI-RS for at least one of beam managementprocedure.
 13. The UE of claim 12, wherein the beam management processesconfiguration comprises, for a CSI-RS process, at least one of: a numberof symbols, a number of sub-time units within one symbol, a transmissionmechanism, a number of CSI-RS resources, a number of CSI-RS antennaports, reporting settings, a number of antenna ports per beam, or aninterference measurement resource (IMR) setting.
 14. The UE of claim 13,wherein the sub-time units within one symbol comprise at least one of: anumber of symbols, a number of repetitions, or a value of numerology orsubcarrier spacing; and wherein the transmission mechanism indicates atleast whether the CSI-RS is periodic or aperiodic.
 15. The UE of claim13, wherein the transmission mechanism indicates at least whether aCSI-RS is cell-specific, UE-specific, or UE-group specific.
 16. The UEof claim 9, wherein the DCI includes a bitmap indicating a beammanagement procedure or a Channel State Information-Reference Signals(CSI-RS) process to target for beam reporting, and wherein each bit inthe bitmap corresponds to a beam management process.
 17. Anon-transitory computer readable memory medium storing instructionsexecutable by processing circuitry of a user equipment (UE) to cause theUE to: determine which of periodic or aperiodic beam managementreference signals to target for a beamforming report; measure the beammanagement reference signals from a base station based on thedetermining; decode a Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) that triggers beam reporting; andencode, for transmission to the base station, the beamforming report.18. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 17,wherein the beamforming report comprises beam management referencesignal measurements of the beam management reference signals; andwherein the beam management reference signals comprise Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals (CSI-RS).
 19. The non-transitory computerreadable memory medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions are furtherexecutable by the processing circuitry to cause the UE to: decode, fromthe base station, a beam management processes configuration prior toreception of the CSI-RS, wherein the beam management processesconfiguration is configured to provide information about the CSI-RS forat least one of beam management procedure; and wherein the beammanagement processes configuration comprises, for a CSI-RS process, atransmission mechanism, wherein the transmission mechanism indicateswhether the CSI-RS is periodic or aperiodic and whether a CSI-RS iscell-specific, UE-specific, or UE-group specific.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer readable memory medium of claim 17, wherein the DCI includes abitmap indicating a beam management procedure or a Channel StateInformation-Reference Signals (CSI-RS) process to target for beamreporting, and wherein each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a beammanagement process.